Bruce Kirkland

Tuesday, September 12, 2017, 1:48 PM

Andrew Garfield at the red carpet for the movie Breathe at Roy Thomson Hall during the Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto on Monday September 11, 2017. Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia Network

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Andy Serkis has a surprise, and maybe even a delightful shock, waiting for his fans.

Andy Serkis has a surprise, and maybe even a delightful shock, waiting for his fans.

As an actor, the 53-year-old Englishman is the guru of motion capture, a man who deserves Oscar honours for his extraordinary motion capture work. That includes ground-breaking performances as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings plus his conjuring of the great ape in the 2005 King Kong, chimpanzee warrior Caesar in the latest Planet of the Apes series, Supreme Leader Snoke in the new Star Wars movies and Baloo in his own re-invention of Jungle Book, due in 2018.

So, naturally, we are gobsmacked that Serkis just made his directorial debut with Breathe. That is because it is a humanistic drama with real actors playing real people and no need for extreme special effects. Breathe debuted as a Toronto film fest Gala Presentation which tells the true-life story of Robin and Diana Cavendish, a British couple who pioneered ways to free disabled people from institutions after Robin was paralyzed by polio at age 28.

Breathe is lyrical, romantic and inspirational. “It was absolutely the defining way I wanted to make this movie,” Serkis told a press conference Tuesday.

“It was never going to be a drama, a documentary, it was never going to be a very dark take on something which affects people in negative and such desperate ways. The essence of this movie is hope. The essence of this movie is love.”

Serkis’ business partner at his production company, Imaginarium Studios, is Jonathan Cavendish, son of the couple portrayed in Breathe. His mother Diana attended the Toronto screening on Monday and pronounced the film as “absolutely great.” Robin Cavendish died in 1994, at the age of 64, after decades of advocacy for others in his situation.

Andrew Garfield plays Robin. “Nothing at all!” he said of what he knew about the Cavendishes before reading the script. But that experience was cathartic. “I cried constantly and laughed a lot. More laughter than crying, but I cried a lot. So there was loads of laughter.”

Then he met Jonathan Cavendish and was caught up in the tale. “There was just a magic that I felt about the whole process and his parents’ lives. It was just one of those life-affirming stories.”

Claire Foy played Diana Cavendish with the same passion. “I just read the story and was beyond moved, really.”